U.S. has 'bigger fish to fry' than going after pot smokers in states where marijuana use is now legal, Obama says

Barack Obama says 'bigger fish to fry' than going after pot smokers

President Barack Obama said Friday he won’t go after Washington state and Colorado for legalizing marijuana, leaving supporters of the movement cautiously optimistic that a showdown with federal law won’t happen.

In a Barbara Walters interview airing Friday on ABC, Obama was asked whether he supports making pot legal. “I wouldn’t go that far,” he said.

But the president, who has admitted smoking pot when he was younger, said his administration won’t pursue the issue in the states where voters in November legalized the use of marijuana. The drug remains illegal under federal law, but the Justice Department has been vague about what its response to the votes would be.

“It does not make sense from a prioritization point of view” to focus on drug use in states where it is now legal, Obama said. Possession of up to one ounce (28 grams) of marijuana is now legal for adults over 21 in both Washington and Colorado.

Marijuana activists were relieved at Obama’s comments, but they still had questions about how regulation will work. They said even if individual users aren’t charged with crimes, marijuana producers and sellers could be subject to prosecution, civil forfeiture and other legal roadblocks.

Obama simply told Walters that going after “recreational users” would not be a “top priority.”

The Justice Department hasn’t targeted recreational marijuana users for decades. With limited resources, its focus has been to go after major drug traffickers.

Nonetheless, the department has said repeatedly in recent weeks that it is reviewing the legalization initiatives passed in Colorado and Washington state. The states have expressed concern that the federal government might sue.

The president’s comments are a good sign that the federal government might be willing to work with our state

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Friday the president believes there are “bigger fish to fry” in prioritizing law enforcement goals.

“But the law is the law, and that is why he has directed the Department of Justice to review these ballot initiatives and make some assessments about how to proceed,” Carney said.

In the department’s most recent statement on the issue, the U.S. attorney for Colorado said Monday that the department’s responsibility to enforce the federal Controlled Substances Act “remains unchanged.”

“Neither states nor the executive branch can nullify a statute passed by Congress,” U.S. Attorney John Walsh said. “Regardless of any changes in state law … growing, selling or possessing any amount of marijuana remains illegal under federal law.”

During this year’s presidential election campaign, legalization activists in Colorado tried and failed to get the president to take a stand on the marijuana measure on his many trips to the battleground state.

“It was frustrating,” said Joe Megyesy, a spokesman for Colorado’s marijuana legalization group. “Here’s the president, an admitted marijuana user in his youth, who’s previously shown strong support for this, and then he didn’t want to touch it because it was such a close race.”

Marijuana is a crop that can’t be insured, and federal drug law prevents banks from knowingly serving the industry, leaving it a cash-only business that’s difficult to regulate.

“I’m wondering what sort of things are going to happen now on the civil side of things,” Megyesy said. “It seems like (Obama) was talking strictly about the criminal side, which is great, but doesn’t the answer the question of how the Department of Justice is going to respond to this.”

Washington’s Liquor Control Board now has a year to adopt rules for the fledgling pot industry.

Colorado’s marijuana measure requires lawmakers to allow commercial pot sales, and a state task force that will begin writing those regulations meets Monday.

State officials have reached out to the Justice Department seeking help on regulating a new legal marijuana industry but haven’t had a response.